QSR Superbowl spend 2017 | Visa

Visa Advertising Solutions

New Visa Data Shows Big Win For QSRs During Super Bowl LI — And Advertisers After the Big Game.

Ordering a pizza or a bucket of drumsticks and wings is as much as a Super Bowl tradition as the endless array of pre-game shows, blockbuster half-time entertainment, and four quarters worth of ads. But how does that translate into quick-service restaurant sales?

An MVP performance – as in most valuable products. Drawing upon real transaction data from more than 88,000 U.S. quick service restaurant locations, a new Visa Advertising Solutions analysis found that pizza shops racked up more than $90.9 million in sales on Super Bowl Sunday. 1 That was about 59 percent more than their average sales on a Sunday in 2016. Chicken restaurants took in about $28 million on Super Bowl Sunday, about twice as much as they do on a normal Sunday. The analysis captured credit, debit, and prepaid transactions that flow through the Visa payment network.

As the infographic shows, consumers started ratcheting up their pizza orders about three hours before Super Bowl LI, with sales peaking at roughly $17.6 million around kickoff. Sales at chicken restaurants followed a similar, though less pronounced pattern, as sales peaked at $3.9 million an hour or so earlier.

Knowing these kinds of numbers is key to developing a successful digital marketing strategy, especially in the fiercely competitive quick-service restaurant industry. Now, more than ever, companies recognize that Big Data can give them an edge by better understanding consumer dining habits.

That’s a major reason why Visa Advertising Solutions is so powerful. Working closely with brands and their media buyers, Visa can help identify insights gleaned from the billions of transactions that flow through the Visa payment network – so that brands can activate a carefully-targeted, digital ad campaign. That’s a winning game plan for QSR marketers – or those in virtually any industry.

1 Sales figures reflect U.S credit, debit, and prepaid VisaNet transactions, as reported in Pacific Standard Time on February 5, 2017. Data for all burger, coffee/breakfast, chicken, Mexican, pizza, and sandwich categories is drawn from a custom-built Visa Audience list representing more than 88,000 merchant locations in the U.S.